As long as rural people vote for politicians who want government to be too small to do anything about this kind of thing it will continue.
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They'll only ever have the confidence to do that if they can overcome their market utopianism, the conviction if something happens on the market purely from the profit motive it must be good and the outcome ethically superior to anything voters might direct democratic government to do.
dec 24, 2024, 5:22 pm • 0 0 • view
The problem is they have dodgy economists pumping out anti-democracy bad economics in the conservative style, and those of course are the one "experts" they accept without question, and then they have all the fake anarchist right wing rhetoricians manipulating their independent spirit and values.
dec 24, 2024, 5:28 pm • 1 0 • view
Well, then they also probably see more bad religion than most, and seem closer in some way to the poisonous legacy of racism. Basically, I suppose it may be quite difficult for some living in rural areas to break out of that rut they're in, and I'm not entirely sure some are even trying.
dec 24, 2024, 5:32 pm • 0 0 • view
What reminded me of this rural example was your mention of market distortion. What’s a greater market distortion? Manufacturers pushing local techs out of business and hiring them as wage earners? Or government insisting on fair competition? Your point about religion and culture is spot on.
dec 24, 2024, 6:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Good point. In conservative market utopianism, some are clearly thinking of whatever market happens to exist (with "market failures," dodgy market structures, etc.) while others are thinking of some abstract, idealized market (as perfect competition). Status quo versus anti-status quo conservatives.
dec 24, 2024, 6:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Of course, neither can support utopian thinking, one for reasons discussed within neoclassical welfare economics, endogenous to it, the other for reasons excluded from neoclassical welfare economics, exogenous to it. Both versions of market utopianism are false or usually inadequately specified.
dec 24, 2024, 6:28 pm • 0 0 • view
Just to clarify, one may have any ethical beliefs one likes, suppose any system or outcome is ideal, but there's a right way to argue for it and a wrong way. I associate "utopian" presentations with the wrong way in the sense of simplistically suppressing the need to address relevant ethical issues.
dec 24, 2024, 6:33 pm • 0 0 • view